PickaWeb

Not everyone “gets” Twitter. If you don’t already have a Twitter page, you may be wondering what the point is, and why Twitter matters. The reason is simple: the social networking site is quickly becoming one of the most popular sites on the Internet, and that means you have a potential audience of millions, with no monthly fees.

A Twitter page affords you the opportunity do all sorts of things: post links to blog posts, advertise specials, and share company news. You can also interact with current and potential customers, which is something that many customers have come to expect in this new era of social networking.
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So, you’ve started a website. You can just write some content, and be done with it, right? Wrong. Even if you run a simple website for a small business, you need to provide fresh content. There are several reasons for this, the biggest one being that visitors are less likely to come back if there is no new content.

It’s not difficult at all to provide fresh, new, and unique content. You can simply update your website every few days with the latest sales, discounts, and special offers that you choose to make available to your customers. You can also post company news, and even a company blog.
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Writing for online readers is very different from writing for an offline audience. A good article won’t necessarily be suitable for internet users. In the same way, a “successful” online article may not be that compelling when taken off the web. There are innate characteristics you should take into consideration when writing for an online audience. Keeping the principles of web marketing in mind is important. Below are some tips that will enable you to write articles that are more relevant to the target audience:

Know the Reader

Write and edit with the readers’ internet behaviour in mind. For example, usability tests reveal that readers tend to scan rather than read web pages. Because so much information is available, people who use the internet often tend to dig deeper to find information. This is unlike television viewers and print readers who passively take the information presented in front of them.

Think Different, Be Different

Literally all kinds of information are available on the internet these days. So think different. What will make you stand out? Find out the best story to tell and think of a compelling way to tell that story. Include videos, audios, graphics, links, etc. when appropriate. If necessary, collaborate with graphic artists and video producers to stress your point.

Customise News Gathering

Ask yourself, “What kind of website am I running?” TV reporters tend to look for sound bites and videos that capture emotion on camera. Journalists conduct research and interviews to find information. As a website owner, determine which type of medium will suit the audience best. It can come in the form of videos, audios, articles, or a combination of two or more of these methods.

Write Tightly

It is always best to write in active form when you’re talking to an online audience. The content should be tighter than print materials while at the same time it should be more detailed than short news reports. Use simple and declarative narration to avoid long clauses. Each conveyed idea should flow logically to the next. Keep in mind that it is important to use strong nouns and verbs to write a lively prose.

Take the Time to Explain

With other website owners scrambling to post the latest news on their website, you may feel pressure-bound to do the same. Yet, this 24/7 mentality might not get you anywhere. Speed is important but an even more critical factor is for readers to understand what’s going on. People want to know not only what happened but also why it matters to them.

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The search industry is highly dynamic. Frequent changes to search engine algorithms should be expected and companies should act fast enough to take advantage of web marketing opportunities. Some website owners saw their rankings take a nosedive after very minor adjustments. Meanwhile, it seems that others dominate the first three pages whether or not changes are made.

Whatever the case, no one really knows the exact formula used in the algorithm. What is important is to stay updated and conduct regular testing to find out the best SEO strategy for the website. Trial and error is usually important in web marketing.

Meeting the Demands of Today

The demands of the global marketplace play a big role in defining how search engines work. Aside from the pressure to deliver better service to users, search engines also need to react quickly to technological changes all around them. For example, the popularity of mobile internet will influence of web marketing. Right now, greater focus is also given to intent-based search and behaviour-based search. Let us take a look at these trends:

Intent-Based Search – basically, this is defined as the reason why people use the search engines. It can be categorized as either buying intent (ecommerce) or research. There are specific keyword phrases that are obviously for ecommerce and web marketing and there are others that are commonly associated with research purposes. But we won’t tackle how keywords are differentiated here. Rather the importance of using geo-targeting must be stressed. If ecommerce is the reason why the visited goes online, for example, the search engine results page (SERP) must display pages that is relevant to his needs, in his area.

Behaviour-Based Search – the behaviour-based search is tailored on the history and search behaviour of the user. “Java”, for instance, has many different meanings. However, if the user’s history shows a lot of interest in programming, then the results should be more in-line with this. “Java” is also associated with travel and beverage. Individuals who are into these should have results that are more relevant to their behaviour.

Blended Search – in any web page, there are a variety of different items that can be included. Among these are video, images, maps, news, books, and news. Since search engines want to improve user engagement, blended search will become more dominant in web marketing. It enables “blended search” (ie a number of different objects) to be displayed on the results page. This is considered to be better than text-based only results.

When you are setting up a website, you need to know what to avoid. Chances are that you will be hiring a website design professional, and you want to make sure that you have given them clear specifications on what you want and do not want on your website.  Web designers often use a number of features that need to be taken into consideration when setting up a website. Here are the main things to keep in mind when you are setting up a website:

A) A website must have a good website design meaning graphics, a good interface, a good layout and it must be accessible through multiple browsers;

B) A website design must include text that is easy to read, and have a website design that intrigues people to say on the site;

C) A good website design includes a site map for easy navigation to make it easy for readers to find information.

With these things in mind, you also need to know what aspects of website design should be avoided when you set up your website. These include:

1.  Automatic background music -  Naturally if you are promoting a music site, you can use music when doing your website design. However, in most cases, it is a good idea to avoid background sound as it can get quickly annoying to your users.  Stop and think about what happens as a user navigates from page to page and they hear the same annoying sound starting over and over again. Chances are that rather Read the rest of this entry »

As the old saying goes, it takes money to make money, and that certainly applies to an online business. The one advantage that a brick-and-mortar merchant has is their physical presence, especially in a shopping mall environment. It’s not quite as simple for an online merchant.

While word of mouth certainly can bring business, it’s imperative that you make your presence known through other means. Those means involve marketing, and just about any marketing campaign that’s going to yield results is going to cost money.
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Setting up a website is not that difficult to do. However, you do need to make sure that your site is easy to navigate or you will likely not have too many repeat readers.  When you are setting up a website, it cannot be stressed enough how important a site map is to your overall design.  If you set up a website and fail to include a site map, you are decreasing your opportunities to have your site found easily by search engines as well.

Setting up a Website – Your Site Map

You might think that a site map is a bit redundant. After all, your site has tabs and other easy to navigate buttons that you included in your original website setup.

However, there are some reasons why your site map should be included when you are setting up a website including:

A) Navigation — Stop and consider what role your site map plays. It is a road map for users to navigate your website.  You can take all the time in the world when setting up a website, but if your readers cannot find their way around, and navigate the pages, they can easily get lost.  A site map allows your readers to “find” themselves no matter where they are on your website.

B)  Themes — The overall theme of your website can be determined easily when a reader clicks on your site map.  When setting Read the rest of this entry »

Ecommerce is forging ahead. Even as retail stores receive an ever decreasing number of shop visitors, the number of people who use the internet to shop and find deals is increasing. This can be attributed to a number of factors, most notably the pressure to find cheaper prices.

The annual holiday benchmark from Experian Marketing Services actually revealed that 1 out of 5 consumers in the US (around 26 percent) are already using the World Wide Web to get deals and discounts. It is safe to assume that all companies that have become successful in ecommerce have secure and reliable web hosting providers.

This report – which also includes consumer behaviour to holiday offers – also tend to show that for the next year, 24% will still be comparing prices. Around 22% will make a purchase from their mobile devices. There is no longer any doubt that online tools have a big impact on the bottom line of retailers. It is not only due to direct purchases being made online. The information consumers find on the web also significantly affects their offline buying behaviour.

For example, if they receive an in-store only discount special through email, they are likely to open this. If this interests them, the retail store in question can experience a boost in profitability. Gift cards also surge in popularity during the holiday season, especially during the 2009 season. There is no reason to doubt that consumers will embrace this for the coming holiday season as well.

If you’re running a brick-and-mortar business, now is the time to explore the opportunities of opening an ecommerce store. Sure, you might already have a static website and a blog page online but beyond having a web hosting provider and an online presence, giving searchers the ability to buy on the internet may increase your long-term profitability. Below are some tips that may help in this initiative:

User-Friendly Storefront – products that are for sale should be easy to find and the whole website easy to navigate. If you’re engaged in selling products that can be categorised into sections, organise these accordingly on your online storefront on the web hosting interface. That way, shoppers can simply click on the product and buy it without any hassle.

Use Good Descriptions – because shoppers are not able to physically see or touch the product, they need as much information as possible. This means that aside from posting the image, a clear description should be posted as well.

Secure Your Site Against Fraud – security is one of the main concerns in online shopping. Make sure to have a SSL certificate to provide assurance that your ecommerce storefront is trustworthy.

Aside from these basic considerations, it is also crucial to ensure that the web hosting company you choose can guarantee 99% uptime, has sufficient backup infrastructure in place, and has good customer support.

Web marketing can be very expensive, it can be free or it can also be obtained at a very low cost for a very high return.  If you are not finding success with free web marketing ideas, the other option is to try some of the low cost web marketing ideas. Here are some that you may find useful in your web marketing campaigns:

A) Software – This is especially good for those who are depending on Social Networking sites to promote their work. There are a variety of software packages that can help you with web marketing through social networking including Tweet Adder, Read the rest of this entry »

Web Hosting – do you  understand the basics?  All too often, the basics of web hosting are misunderstood.  A web hosting service is in the business to provide a service. This service allows business and individual users the ability to be able to post their content on the internet.  Web hosting providers either provide the service free (with their ads on the site) or they sell their web hosting services.  In effect, the web hosting company provides a server as well as the technology necessary to allow a website to to viewed by users of the internet.

Web hosting companies serve not only the website owner, but those who search the internet.  Users who are searching the internet do so by purchasing internet access from a cable company or other internet service provider, not from a web hosting company (though web hosting companies may also offer this service).  Web hosting service includes a format by which web pages and other information may be viewed via the net using HTML (hypertext markup language) format.

Web hosting in the UK or the US offer clients access to their services for the purpose of displaying information after the user has decided which website they wish to visit. This is done through requesting access to a specific domain by typing it into their web browser. Popular web browsers include Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and Firefox.  If the web browser is compatible with the servers of the web hosting company, then viewers will see exactly what the website designer had in mind.

Web hosting companies store web sites as pages on a server. Servers are computers that are part of a network that enable you to access content via the interent any time, day or night. As many have discovered, the internet simply never sleeps, there are people navigating to various websites around the clock meaning web hosting companies must be able to keep their servers running around the clock.

Web hosting computers contain the necessary configurations that allow a website to be displayed following a pointer routine (e.g. what happens after you type in a domain name or click on the link to that domain name) which looks for the address that you have typed in.  At that point, the web hosting site provides the information to display the website on the computer screen of the person who searched for the site.

Web hosting companies typically make a package available whereby you are allowed to purchase your domain name as part of their web hosting services.  If you already own your domain name, you can simply transfer the web hosting to that company.

Summary

Web hosting companies are the backbone of the internet .Without web hosting, there would be little (if anything) to see on the web.  When you are considering setting up a website, find the best website hosting company you can to make sure that your website stays accessible to your readers around the clock.

With the launch of popular smart phones and other high-end gadgets that let people surf the internet anytime, anywhere, it is not surprising that an increasing number of users are accessing their favorite websites and email while on the go. So web marketing professionals should take note. In addition, according to the research conducted by eMarketer, majority of mobile internet users are spending more time checking emails than any other activity. The reason for this is simple: email remains as the most important communication tool for both professional and personal reasons.

Meanwhile, the study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Nielson concluded that even though desktop users spend most of their time on social networking sites, mobile users give priority to email messages. For June 2010, Nielson found out that in one hour, 25 minutes will be dedicate to email, 6.18 minutes on social sites, and the rest on other activities. This presents a lot of opportunities in web marketing.

It seems that email only comes second to search when it comes to internet popularity. Even then, email remains more effective for marketers because it captures and retains the attention of a highly targeted audience. As a result, it is safe to conclude that email marketing, already one of the key ingredients of a successful web marketing campaign, will become even more important.

Getting Mobile Email Marketing Right

If you intend to take advantage of this trend early, there are a few things you need to look into. First of all, you need to ensure that the email messages you send can display correctly in mobile devices. Some of the considerations include:

Usage – users are pressed for time when they’re traveling. That’s why it is important to find out their surfing habits. Right now, many are used to scanning their inboxes and deleting the not-so-important information. This might spell trouble for some web marketing firms because this habit might spill over to regular usage. Of course, if your messages are highly targeted, it will just make your company more competitive.

Content Rendering – the competition in the technology manufacturing sector is stiff. Who will ultimately end up as the winner: the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, maybe even Nokia? Every firm is trying to create the most user-friendly interface that users will get used to. As a result, devices vary in how content is rendered. Make sure that your emails are easily readable in the most popular devices today.

Platform – instead of a big screen in front of them, they’re viewing your message in a 2 to 4 inches screen. Email formatting should be distinctive, straight-forward, and large, heavy graphics are ideally avoided.

If you are considering web marketing options, you might be considering paid advertisements.  As with any other type of web marketing, there are pros and cons to doing this.  Web marketing through paid advertising can be a low cost web marketing option if you elect to use it. Since everyone knows that advertisements have had major successes, you can consider paid advertising for your web marketing needs.  There may be advantages to web marketing through paid advertising that you have not considered including:

A) Fairly low cost – Web marketing through paid advertising is a low cost method when you place it up against other more traditional marketing efforts. In fact, there are internet ad packages that you can purchase for as little as $30 a month, and they can significantly improve your overall web marketing campaign;

B)  Help capture your market – Web marketing is done for one reason alone and that is to grab your market-share.  This is especially true for those who are using web marketing to capture the attention of a younger group of buyers/subscribers.  More and more web marketing professionals understand that in order to capture the market of younger buyers, that online web marketing is essential to success;

C)  Hassle Free marketing – Web marketing is probably one of the easiest forms of marketing that exist.  You need litlte more than a computer, a great idea for forming your campaign and the ability to find the right web marketing package to suit your needs.  Most web marketing packages that include paid advertising also include a monitoring system to evaluate the conversions of each advertisement;

D)  No more updating - Perhaps one of the best reasons to use web marketing is that your advertisements typically need little (if any) changing. One well thought out advertisement can drive traffic and customers to your website for months on end with little or no change.

Like any other form of advertising, web marketing does have downsides to it.  It is important that if your web marketing campaign includes paid advertising that you understand the downsides. These include:

A) Limited Scope – You might be surprised to find out that some web marketing campaigns that include paid advertisements may have limitations. In fact, some studies indicate that some consumers still relay on the older forms of advertising (e.g. radio, television, print) and often ignore web marketing advertisements;

B)  Costs of Advertising - While web marketing through paid advertising is a low cost option, if you require help with your web marketing efforts, it  could result in additional costs over and above the cost of a web marketing paid advertising campaign. This could include someone helping to establish or produce a website, produce appropriate advertising material, etc.  These costs must be taken into consideration when you are launching your web marketing campaign;

Summary

Web marketing can be beneficial to companies large and small.  Paid advertisements as part of your web marketing campaign has both upsides and downsides to it. All entrepreneurs should carefully look at their web marketing campaigns and see if they are paying off.  If used properly, paid advertisements as part of effect web marketing can mean that you are getting maximum exposure at a fraction of the cost of other marketing media.

In a previous article, we discussed why online videos have become increasingly popular in website marketing. In addition to this, tips on how to create effective videos have been posted. Though there is no doubt that videos are an important ingredient in web marketing, it never fails to surprise that it is still gaining strength even as we speak.

Inc’s July 2010 ranking reveals that in America, 8 out of 10 users are watching videos on the web and they average 14.7 hours a month. If you are located in the UK, why should this figure matter? Well, the internet is a global marketplace. And it is safe to assume that the figures from the US, in this case, is also applicable to other markets with high internet penetration rate such as the UK, France, and Germany among others.

Google sites received the highest number of eyeballs and viewing sessions. Obviously, YouTube.com would have accounted for majority of this figure. Other notable sites where videos were viewed included Yahoo sites, Facebook.com, VEVO, Fox Interactive Media, Turner Network, and sites that are owned by Microsoft.

What You Should Do For Website Marketing

For the year 2011 to 2012, online video advertising is expected to get double-digit growth. The growth is based on a variety of factors including competition among networks, expanding premium content, transaction transparency, innovation, CPM, and better return on investment. When these features are combined with an increased level of buying, prices might be driven down and the industry will potentially become more affordable and popular.

Given the shifting preference to multimedia content in website marketing, what should your company do about it? Well, it is no longer enough to just upload videos. It is important to make your content stand out from the rest. Aside from producing the right kind of vides for the target market (ie. informative, interesting, funny, entertaining), these should also be marketed the right way.

Social media marketing should be one of your primary techniques. When the videos are recommended by friends and people within the network, users tend to trust it more. They also believe that the video would be worth watching. By scattering videos through social sites; in website marketing, this means finding a core group of “influencers” who have a lot of connections.

If you are interested in marketing on Facebook for a very limited fee, for example, simply posting on your wall will make people more aware of your brand. Meanwhile, tagging these with the influencer’s name might yield a lot of benefits as well because the videos you posted will be displayed to the “friends” of the influencers.

Web marketing does not have to be a costly venture. In fact, there are several free web marketing options that should be explored before you launch your web marketing campaign.  While paid marketing options are good, free ones can be even more beneficial to you.  Here are some of the free web marketing techniques you can explore:

A) Listing your website – There are hundreds of internet directories on the web.  These directories list websites by category and can help dramatically increase your visibility.  Web marketing professionals will almost always find all of the potential categories to list a website in if the undertake a web marketing campaign;

B)  Forum marketing - You may not even think about the number of options that are available for free web marketing through the use of forums. For example, Yahoo! Answers offers the ability to answer specific questions and include a link for additional information or as a resource.  If you carefully check internet forums and make them a part of your web marketing plan, they can be an invaluable source of new traffic;

C)  Press Releases – Another free web marketing technique is available through press releases.  Press releases need not be pages long, they can be a couple of brief paragraphs that talk about your product or your services.  Submit these press releases to free directories online and as they are released, they will get indexed and help drive new traffic to your site;

D)  Other Websites – Using carnivals and other web services that create a bond between you and other webmasters can be a boon to your web marketing campaign.  You can exchange links with others and share in traffic.  Check out link exchange Read the rest of this entry »

The search engines use a variety of factors to determine a website’s ranking. In the past, this mostly involves crawling web pages for certain keywords. That’s why keyword density (ie. the number of times a certain keyword is repeated in the content) has become a primary factor. However, this algorithm is definitely prone to abuse. A lot of modifications have occurred since then.

Just recently, link building has become the central focus of a marketer’s strategy. While this is still important, together with keyword density, a new trend is emerging in the SEO field: personalisation and localisation of search engine results. As the term implies, the search engine results page (SERP) for a person based in Australia will be different from that of a person based in the United Kingdom. It can go beyond that. Even people within the same area can receive different results based on their searching preferences and history.

Now, for website owners, the question is “How can I make my website rank high for selected key phrases for people in the UK?” This is where web hosting UK comes in. The search engines actually make an effort to detect where your web host is located. This is based on the assumption that majority of websites choose a server that is in their area.

Aside from web hosting UK, other factors you should consider include inserting the name of your locality (ie Glasgow, Edinburg, London, etc) in the keyword phrase. For example, if you’re selling auto insurance then the keyword should ideally be “auto insurance Glasgow” or “auto insurance Edinburg”. You can include more than one city in your keyword depending on the geographic coverage of your business.

And as was mentioned earlier, the number of links your website has is always important. But there is an added twist in the search engine algorithm these days. Take note that they will also consider the geographic area where your links are coming from. When your links is mostly derived from car dealers from the UK, for instance, you are most likely to rank higher in the Google UK’s results page than you would in the US, if you even rank prominently there at all.

The search industry is definitely evolving. It is important to keep track of all these developments to improve your ranking and to avoid losing what you already gained. The use of keywords and link building in the new initiatives don’t come as a surprise. However, who would have thought, a year or two ago, that web hosting UK will also be taken as part of the equation?

There’s no such thing as being too careful, especially with your website data. You should back up your data every week, independent of any automatic server backups that you may have in place. If you take the few extra moments to do so, you can ensure that you’re prepared, no matter what.

When you back up your data, make certain that you have local copies of your website’s code, databases, and images. Essentially, you want a local copy of your website so that if the worst happens, you’ll be prepared with an up-to-date and complete version of your website.
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There are many keyword analysis tools available in the market. But if there is one tool that is universally used by website owners for website marketing, it is the Google Keyword Tool. It provides a comprehensive set for data for internet marketers who want to rank high in the search engine. It is originally designed for AdWords users but users who want to improve their ranking are taking advantage of this free tool as well.

If you loved the Google Keyword Tool before, you will be happy to know that the company is launching an updated version of it. The updated keyword tool (available in beta) will be combined with the current form to provide a variety of benefits. Dan Friedman from Google’s Inside AdWords crew said that the two tools will be available in their current forms until the end of August.

After that, you can expect to use a comprehensive tool that provides the following information:

* Flexible Search Options – users will have the ability to search on by different keyword combinations, website, and category. A single set of results will be produced.

* Efficient Keyword Refinement – filter results by keyword match type or word.

* No Duplicate Keywords – in accessing this tool within a certain ad group, the keywords that have been identified with that ad group will have a message beside it that says “already in ad group”.

* Advanced Options – view the statistics for mobile searches. In addition, data can be filtered based on ad share, local searches, etc.

* Negative Keywords – this is one of the better features that have been introduced. Negative keywords have always been important for any SEO or PPC initiative. It enables irrelevant words that are usually associated with your product, service, or offer to be disregarded. Just use the drop down menu to select the negative keywords of your choosing.

If you have a Google Adwords account, you can already access this tool by clicking on the “Keyword Tool” found under the Opportunities section.

This development will likely influence your SEO and PPC initiatives in the future by helping you target the right set of keyword groups. With persistence and the right strategy, it can improve your site traffic and conversion rate in the near future. Take note though that it is important to up your game! After all, your competitors will have access to the same tool. The key is to find the right set of keywords that can be rightly associated with your company.

If you don’t sell products, you can still benefit from having a website for your company. If your business is non-profit, for example, you still have a message to convey. Your website can provide the medium, whether you post announcements, blog posts, or other information.

You can allow people to submit their e-mail addresses to opt in to newsletters and other announcements that your group may put out, and you can promote your group’s activities throughout your site. A website is of course a perfect way to sell services and products, but that is by far not the only purpose a website can serve.
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In website marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) is one strategy you cannot do without. But the field of SEO is wide and varied. To help you find out how well your campaign is doing, it is best to open a Google Webmaster Tools account. With Google’s shift to personalised and localised search results, it has become very crucial to determine your “average position” in Google.

The Google Webmaster Tools will let you know the exact keywords that are driving traffic to your website. And the results may sometimes even be surprising. In fact, it is even possible that a high average position for your selected keyword may not generate as much traffic as a keyword where you have a lower average position! This just means that you are not optimising your site the right way.

Given these advantages, it is definitely recommended for you to open a webmaster account with Google. But there are actually marketers who prefer not to open one because of they implement “black hat” techniques for certain site while keeping others legitimate. While this reason is understandable, web masters who utilise this technique will also lose out on free and comprehensive information available from Google.

Signing Up for the Google Webmaster Tools

After you have signed up for the Google Webmaster Tool, simply add and verify the information for the websites you want to tract. You can view the data on those sites after that. The fact that the search engines make an effort to personalise and localise results mean that you will most likely achieve higher rankings in your home country than in others.

In addition, sites will rank differently at different time frames. Your site, as it is displayed in the search engine results page (SERP) right now might be different after a few minutes. That’s why the average ranking is very meaningful. Some of the data that will be displayed on your dashboard include the following:

• Search Queries – the top queries or search terms used by users to find and access your site (this includes the clicks and page impressions).
• Keywords – the keywords identified when the search engine crawled site pages
• Inbound Links – this is the number of links to your site counted by Google’s spiders

But more than getting data, it is crucial to make sense of the available information. When you click on the “+” sign after the keyword phrase, Google will display the number of clicks, impressions, and CTR. Also, it will provide information on the specific pages that received impressions and clicks for your selected keywords.

When you choose a web hosting company, it is important to recognise that you are actually putting the future of your search engine ranking in their hands. When you choose a good provider, the SEO campaign you implement will reach its full potential. On the other hand, if you choose a company that cannot provide reliable service, your website’s ability to rank will suffer. Worse, it can even lose the ranking it has already achieved. That’s why it is important to choose your web hosting provider cautiously.

Some of the factors you need to look into so that you will place better in the search engines through the webhost include the following:

• Monthly Bandwidth – for most startups and small websites, a monthly bandwidth of 2.5GB is enough. It can accommodate up to 3,000 visitors a month. It’s not necessary to get a high bandwidth but if you predict that your site will get many thousands of visitors, subscribe to something that can handle that volume.
• Disk Space – aside from SEO considerations, you also need to look at the cost of the web hosting service. Many providers offer a lot of disk space, but do you really need it? 600MB can generally hold 2,000 pages (varies depending on the file size of the content).
• Instant Backups – no matter how good a web hosting service is, there is no guarantee that it won’t encounter any problems. For example, if it is attacked by a virus, your content and files can be lost. Ideally, all your files should be backed up to ensure its existence.
• Good Customer Support – when something goes wrong, having access to a support representative can be a lifesaver. The importance of good customer service is especially valuable today because a lot of transactions are processed online. 24/7 support is ideal.
• Various FTP Accounts – does your web host care about your safety. While many webmasters overlook this, it is actually good to have various FTP accounts. This will allow specific developers and programmers to have access to relevant folders without giving them access to the entire server.
• Streaming Video/Audio Support – videos and audios are part of a modern SEO campaign. It is crucial for your web hosting package to support these features. This will allow you to promote your website effectively.

There are certainly many factors to analyse in choosing a web hosting company. Make sure you understand what you’re getting before you subscribe to any service to avoid problems in the future.

Some business owners think that it’s enough that their site is listed in search engines. That simply isn’t so. It’s a basic fundamental of business: if you don’t advertise, how will your customers find you? The same school of thought that applies to brick-and-mortar businesses certainly applies to Internet-based businesses, if not more.

Because you don’t have a physical storefront, you don’t have the advantage of having customers walk by, and stop in. So, then, you have to put forth a lot of effort to advertise your presence. However, it’s not as difficult as it may sound. There are several different outlets that you need to reach in order to effectively reach your potential customers.
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With its 500 million members, Facebook marketing has become a must. Yet, when you look at it closely, very few businesses are actually able to utilise Facebook effectively. One of the trends you’ll continually observe is the obsession to increase the number of company fans. This may be a popular strategy but it isn’t necessarily a very good one. Similar to the way that SEO is more than just about rankings, web marketing on Facebook also requires companies to plan a strategy that will encourage fans to stick around over the long term.

It is easy to get fans. For example, offering contests and freebies can help you reach your target number within a week or even just several days. But there should be an incentive to encourage fans to continuously visit your site. Offering regular freebies is one way but it all comes down to consumer engagement. After the campaign to get fans, below are some examples you might want to follow.

The Starbucks Experience

Anyone who studied marketing management has probably heard about the “Starbucks Experience”. It is the feature that propelled Starbucks to global dominance. While its main product is coffee, people go to the coffee shop for its ambience and relaxation. The atmosphere is conducive to a lot of activities including reading, surfing the web, and bonding with friends.

The company has taken the “Starbucks Experience” to a whole new level on the internet. Rather than hard selling, it instead started conversations with customers. They are talking to people, not at them. As a result, customers are responding the “right” way.

If there’s one thing they did right, it’s the fact that they got people to talk about their favorite drinks. So their members weren’t only given the chance to air their views to Starbucks, they also got the chance to interact with others and compare preferences. Most of all, it made people want to go to the coffee shop to grab a drink.

Restaurant and Retail Store Strategies

As was mentioned earlier, it is important to sustain interest among your online community. Aside from holding contest, it might be a good idea to give out “Facebook fan only” discounts and gift cards. Members should be encouraged to join in on the discussion though. For example, they can receive these freebies when they share holiday stories that are somehow related to your company.

Keep things exciting by making the rewards program and the giveaways unpredictable. Hold contests for major holidays such as Christmas and New Year. And most of all, always keep your page updated because it will let members know that you are very serious about web marketing.

The importance of website marketing today is undeniable. Every company that wants to be successful over the long term should start laying down the foundation right now. Social media has become a critical aspect in a holistic website marketing campaign. But certain activities can be pointless and even counterproductive. That’s why online surveys should be conducted. It lets your company know which strategy to pursue and which tactics should be avoided.

Aside from online surveys, it is also important to align the website marketing campaign with your company’s goals and objectives. Most companies incorporate social media into their promotional initiatives for a variety of purposes including:

• Brand Awareness
• Customer Engagement
• Engagement with Prospects
• Brand Reputation
• Revenue
• Increase Lead Volume
• Get Product Feedback

Facebook and Twitter provides a great opportunity for research, marketing, and customer engagement. Include surveys in your social media marketing strategy and you’ll be given the chance to learn more about customers.

Identification Programs – by “identification”, we don’t mean finding out the identities of your customers, which would simply be creepy. Instead, it is more about profiling users and finding out their needs and wants. This will help in product research and development.

Crowdsourcing – this is the concept of generating ideas and solutions from communities. Aside from building better relationships with customers, crowdsourcing also enables companies develop new products, services, and solutions. It is an effective way to connect to the target market with little or no investment.

Create a Survey Panel – as your network grows, it might be a good idea to create a survey panel that can regularly disseminate information to your company.

Recognise People in Your Network – people who contribute to your community should be recognised. For active members, public recognition is priceless. It will make them feel appreciated. As a result, they will become more loyal to the community and you will have a core group of committed customers.

Market research has always been the foundation of effective marketing strategies. The number of online options nowadays makes this task easier. Social media website marketing solutions should be considered by all internet marketers if they want to get and retain their competitive advantage in their respective markets.

So whether the purpose of your campaign is brand awareness, lead generation, product feedback, or customer engagement, you can achieve all these through market research and effective social media marketing.

Search engine optimization helps you get ranked in search engines, helps you come up in searches and helps add to the credibility of your website or blog. There are those that will tell you that the only way of getting well ranked and establishing yourself in search engines is to hire a search engine optimization specialist.  Do not think this is the only way. There are many SEO opportunities that you can take advantage of that will not cost you a dime, if you know what to do and how to do it.

Search engine optimization works to drive targeted traffic to your website or your blog and can help you get new sales, resulting in a boost to your bottom line. There are hundreds of sources of information for effective search engine marketing, but there are really only a few effective methods for taking advantage of low cost SEO opportunities. Here are some ways you can have an effective search engine optimization program without spending thousands of dollars or thousands of hours implementing it:

A) Use Link Exchanges - While some website and blog owners pretty much keep to themselves and do not share information, reaching out to websites and blogs that offer products or services that are complimentary to your own can help you both win the search engine optimization game. Contact reputable website owners and blog authors and find out how you can help each other build up page rank by this effective (and no cost) SEO opportunity;

B) Articles, Articles, Articles – We have certainly discussed the advantages of article marketing before.  Having keyword rich articles that contain links back to your website or blog is a great search engine optimization tool. Articles must be well written Read the rest of this entry »